NIU St. Valentine’s Day massacre and why I’m mad as hell
I started writing my Straight Shootin' column in The Rock River Times last May, shortly after (and in response to) the Virginia Tech tragedy. Since then, we have had numerous other mass shooting tragedies (and will continue to have) all over this country. The reason I am so sure they will continue (especially here in Illinois) is because there are an estimated 223 million guns in this country, and there are an ever-increasing number of wackos out there who are ready, willing and able to use them to commit these atrocities.
Two of the latest have been right here in northern Illinois with the murder of five women at the Lane Bryant store at the mall in Tinley Park and now the St. Valentine’s Day massacre at Northern Illinois University (NIU) in DeKalb.
After every one of these instances, the gun-grabbing and Constitution-suppressing fanatics will use it as ammunition to call for more gun control measures. They will say this is more evidence we need stricter gun control laws. Sometimes they are successful in passing these gun control laws, and sometimes they’re not. Either way, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference.
These atrocities make me mad as hell because there is something we can do about it, but the spineless liberal politicians in the Land of Lincoln ignore the United States Constitution and refuse to allow us our God-given right of self-preservation.
If their intent is truly to reduce gun violence, their heart may be in the right place, but their head is not. If they succeed in passing more restrictive gun control laws, it will, in fact, make us less safe. That is because gun control laws, will only affect law-abiding citizens.
This may come as a shock, but criminals don't obey laws. Passing these ineffective gun control laws will only make it harder for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from these criminals.
As we have seen time and time again, campus and mall security can't protect you, the police can't protect you, and more gun control laws won’t make you safer. There is simply no amount of legislation that can ensure there will be no criminal activity or that the criminals won't have the means to carry out that activity.
NIU had good security procedures in place, and their campus and local law enforcement responded in less than 2 minutes. Two minutes too late, of course. The shooter at NIU had already finished his killing spree and committed suicide before the cops got there. The fact is, you just cannot anticipate an incident like this, and you can't have law enforcement everywhere, all the time. You can't make your safety somebody else’s responsibility. You have to take personal responsibility to protect yourself.
The time has come for Illinois and Wisconsin residents to insist that our legislators pass concealed carry and Castle Doctrine laws, as the other 48 states have done. Our state politicians simply don't get it and won't initiate this needed legislation on their own. When asked his reaction regarding the NIU massacre, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) said "unimaginable." UNIMAGINABLE???!!! What does he expect when he renders the citizenry defenseless by not allowing them to arm themselves for protection? Because of him and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (D), Illinois has the most restrictive gun laws in the United States, and we have the Lane Bryant and NIU murders to show for it.
The Feb. 15 headline in the Chicago Sun-Times read "WHY?" I'll tell you why, because we are rendered defenseless and are easy targets, that's why. Why do you think that schools and churches are among the most common targets? Because the bad guys know they are the easiest targets, and the victims can't shoot back, that's why.
How many of these multiple-victim tragedies do you think would have succeeded if even some of the victims were armed and were able to fight back? These politicians refuse to see this and say they don't want people carrying guns around because it's too dangerous. The net effect of this is that only the lunatics get to carry guns.
Anita Alvarez, the Democratic candidate for state's attorney in (crooked) Cook County, has even publicly said she doesn't think any citizen should be able to have any gun. She is running for the office that is supposed to enforce our laws and is openly thumbing her nose at the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.
The time has come to take the offensive and demand that we be given the means to exercise our God-given right to protect ourselves. Since we can't carry a cop everywhere, we should be able to carry a gun. We need to organize a petition drive or "Call Your Congressman" campaign, or do whatever it takes to get our message across to them that we will no longer stand by and be helpless victims.
The shooter at NIU was able to fire more than 50 rounds and commit multiple homicides because nobody had the means to stop him. It was him against a crowded lecture hall full of people, but he had the upper hand because not one person there had a firearm to fight back. Even though he was far outnumbered by the students, after emptying his guns, he stood calmly on the stage in Cole Hall and reloaded for more carnage because he knew nobody could stop him.
This is an election year, and there will never be a better time to let your local and state legislators know how we feel. We need to tell them we're mad as hell, and we're not gonna take it anymore. And if they won't listen, we need to throw the bums out of office. The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees us "the right to keep and bear arms," but if we don’t exercise that right, we will surely lose it. And if we don’t exercise that right, we will remain helpless victims, slaughtered like mindless sheep every time some wacko gets the urge. And tragedies like NIU, and Lane Bryant, and Virginia Tech, and Columbine, etc., etc., will happen again, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN!
Eric R. Sonnenberg is a Federal Firearms Licensed gun dealer who owns Forest City Firearms, 137 N. Chicago Ave., Rockford or online at www.forestcityfirearms.com. He can be reached at (815) 262-4279 or via e-mail to forestcityfirearms@comcast.net.